Pious people should feel tranquility and patience; the same state of mind ought to be extended to all the events to which the present life is exposed. Therefore no man has rightly renounced himself, but he who has wholly resigned himself to the Lord, so as to leave all the parts of his life to be governed by His will. He whose mind is thus composed, whatever may befall him, will neither think himself miserable, nor invidiously complain against God on account of his lot. The great necessity of his disposition will appear, if we consider the numerous accidents to which we are subject. Diseases of various kinds frequently attack us; at one time, the pestilence is raging; at another, we are cruelly harassed with the calamities of war; at another time frost or hail, devouring the hopes of the year, produces sterility, which brings us to penury; a wife, parents, children, or other relatives, are snatched away by death.…these are the events, on the occurrence of which, men curse this life, or their natal day, execrate heaven and earth, reproach God, and, as they are eloquent to blaspheme, accuse him of injustice and cruelty. But it behooves a believer, even in these events, to contemplate the clemency and truly paternal goodness of God. Wherefore, if he sees his relatives removed, and his house rendered a solitary place, he must no cease to bless the Lord, but rather have recourse to this reflection: Yet the grace of the Lord, which inhabits my house, will not leave it desolate.~ John Calvin (Romans 12)